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Bread business

May 20, 2013 - 12:52pm

soph

Bread business

Hi everyone!

so excited to be here. Hope you can help. I am strongly considering starting a bread store in my community, which is outside NYC. Problem is I don't know where to start. I have an existing on line sweets business so I do bake. I have also started making bread - not to sell online But just for my enjoyment and for my family to consume and be happy!

So I do have some business and baking experience, but not so much with bread.

any suggestions as to where I can start my endevor would be greatly greatly appreciated. anything from what book I can read to start a bread baking business, to someone I can speak to, or anything in between.

You might want to take a ride over to Ulster County and check out what Dan Leader has done with his Bread Alone Bakery Business. It's 2 hours away but he has been very successful with his concept and business model and has expaned from just breads to sandwiches and some stores have pastry as well. Worth your time to look up.

Check out the Bread Bakers Guild of America, bbga.org. They are a professional organization for primarily independent bakers and bakeries, and serious home bakers. Their members have a broad spectrum of experience including some of the best bakers in the US. Many have done what you are considering. They have a message board where just this kind of thing is discussed and regulalry offer seminars and symposiums for professional baking development--baking and business skills. I also suggest you check out the King Arthur Flour Company's professional baking and development offerings. Jeff Hamelman teaches excellent classes on bakery start up and operation. Hurry though, they fill up fast.

Since you have neither much bread baking, nor much retail experience, I would advise you to start small. Bake some really good breads, and approach a natural food store, or small grocery store in your neighborhood, and ask them whether they would sell your breads. Check into what kind of license you might need for baking from your home.

In Maine this is easy, I have a home processor's license ($20), had an inspection of my kitchen, and bake since 4 years organic breads for a local natural food store. Since this is my entertainment and contribution to the community, I don't need to go on a larger scale. But if you want to know whether this is really something that you want to do, this is a great way to find out - without incurring large overhead costs and other hassles connected with opening an own business.

One extreme would be the career of Chad Robertson... study with bakers in France, intern with a baker in California, then develop a signature loaf and open a business.

That's a career, and you might just be wanting to start a business. But the takeaway from CR's career is first to "perfect" the product. Depending on your bread-baking experience, this might take a few months or a few years (or something between!). In my opinion there's are many steps between "I just started making bread" and "I can reliably produce N near-perfect loaves a day, in summer and winter".

You heard about the violin student who asked his teacher how to get to Carnegie Hall, right?

I saw recently an online course, and regrettably I can't find it again, about starting a bakery-related business. While I was looking for it I came across this, though: "How to start a successful bakery-related business" http://recreational.ice.edu/Courses/Detail/14293

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